There are speculations that the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA) may have swallowed its vomit on its earlier decision cancelling this Saturday’s sanitation exercise because of the planned reception for the transpiration minister, Rotimi Amaechi.

An Ikwerre organisation is planning to honour Amaechi on Saturday, same day that RIWAMA which is being run by the state chairman of the PDP, Felix Obuah announced the monthly sanitation would not hold.

RIWAMA, through Mr Jerry Needam, its spokesman, had issued a statement early on Thursday cancelling the sanitation. The reason he gave was the on-going commissioning of projects.

Radio stations in the state have been announcing the planned reception for Amaechi since Thursday. In a dramatic twist, the same RIWAMA issued another statement to the effect that the sanitation exercise would hold and that there would be strict restriction of movements.

The first statement reads: RIWAMA Announces Cancellation Of Sanitation Exercise For Saturday, June 30, 2018

“The Sole Administrator of the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Bro. Felix Obuah has announced the cancellation of this month’s state-wide sanitation exercise billed for Saturday, June 30, 2018.

“A statement issued by the Agency, and signed by Jerry Needam, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, to the Sole Administrator, RIWAMA, said the cancellation of the sanitation exercise was due to the ongoing commissioning of projects, as part of activities marking the 3rd anniversary celebration of the State Governor, Chief Barr. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, GSSRS, POS Africa.

“Bro. Obuah said the cancellation of the exercise became necessary so as to enable residents, business operators in the State and visitors participate in the commissioning of projects as part of activities marking Governor Wike’s three years in office.

“He enjoined all residents and those doing business in the State to take advantage of the cancellation of the sanitation exercise to witness the commissioning of various projects executed by the Nyesom Wike administration.

“The RIWAMA boss also urged those living and doing business in the State to keep their surroundings clean, at all times.

“He further advised all residents in the state to maintain good sanitary habits by ensuring that their surroundings are clean at all times and emptying their gutters and other water channels, to allow for free flow of water.

Then the second statement, which came hours later:

“Bro. Felix Obuah, has announced that this month’s State-wide Sanitation exercise will hold on Saturday, June 30, 2018, across the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State from 7am – 10am.

“The RIWAMA Sole Administrator, who made the announcement, said there will be strict restriction of human and vehicular movements during the period of the exercise from 7am – 10am.

“A statement issued by the Agency and signed by Jerry Needam, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Sole Administrator, RIWAMA, Bro. Felix Obuah, emphasized that this statement supersedes the earlier statement as restriction of movements during the exercise will be strictly enforced.

“Bro. Obuah also enjoined all Rivers people and those living and doing business in the State to comply accordingly by using the period to clean their environment or surroundings as defaulters will face the wrath of the law.

“He urged owners of trucks (individuals and cooperate organizations) to make available their trucks for evacuation of waste that would be generated during the period of the sanitation exercise.

“While urging the people of the State to support Governor Nyesom Wike’s vision of a clean and safe environment, Bro. Obuah reiterated the uncompromised commitment of the Agency (RIWAMA) in making Port Harcourt regain its Garden City status as well as having a healthy and clean State for the citizenry.

“The Sole Administrator of RIWAMA, Bro. Felix Obuah, enjoined all Local Government Chairmen of the 23 Local Government Councils of Rivers State and security agencies to comply accordingly with the Restriction of Movement Order during the period of the exercise in their respective council areas.

There have been ceaseless tears in Akwa Ibom since Thursday morning, when the news broke, of the murder of Mr Okon Iyanam, a former executive director, marketing of Globacom.

Iyanam was said to have been shot at close range at his new hotel in Mowe, Ogun State about 12.30am on Thursday. The assassins strolled into the hotel during a birthday party and after locating Iyana, pumped bullets into him and walked away.

His elder brother, Victor, has already confirmed the killing. He said in a statement that: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the tragic death of my brother, Okon, in the early hours of Wednesday 27th June, 2018.

“Okonpapa had just recently opened his new Heritage Hotels and Resorts in Mowe, Ogun State where he spent most of his time trying to stabilize the management and sales techniques. He reported a successful ongoing venture.

“While a birthday party was going on in the hotel, some men, suspected to be either armed robbers or hired assassins crashed into the place at about 12.30am with sporadic gun shots. They asked for the owner. When he was eventually identified, he was shot at close range in the neck region. He stood no chance. He died instantly.

“The Police first Responders then deposited his body in a Morgue. I rushed to Lagos upon the information delivered to me and confirmed for myself, the level of wickedness anybody could deliver to a man whose only crime was working hard for his livelihood.

“Okonpapa graduated from the University of Calabar in 1986. He started his career with UAC Foods immediately after his NYSC in 1987. Thereafter, he worked across almost all sectors of the economy. He worked with Akwa Ibom State Government owned Peacock Paints, serving as the Marketing Manager in Lagos; 33 Export Lager Beer, serving as the Area Manager, Makurdi; Glo GSM Network as pioneer Marketing Manager but later elevated to the position of Chief Operating Officer and eventually left Glo as Executive Director, Sales and Marketing. He, at some point also served as the Chief

“Marketing Officer, V-Mobile. Okon retired to consulting and later, farming in Mowe and Katsina. The Heritage Hotel was his latest and now last venture.

“He was interested in the Governorship of Akwa Ibom State and first used the platform of the PDP. When this was not possible, he bought the gubernatorial ticket under the platform of the Accord Party. He was a consummate Marketer and Social Commentator. He loved the Internet and used it effectively as a vehicle for the propagation of his ideas on wide strata of subjects. He was aged 52.

All those who were sacked as a result of redundancy in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State have been paid off by the government.

The state deputy governor, Rear Admiral John-Jonah who made the disclosure in Yenagoa during the transparency briefing said it cost the government N313.5 million to settle the disengaged workers.

He said the amount was spent in lieu of the three months’ in lieu of notice for the termination of their services, in line with the public service regulations, as they apply to tertiary institutions.

He listed the affected institutions to include, Niger Delta University (NDU), Amassoma, Isaac Adaka Boro College of Education, Sagbama, College of Health Technology, Otuogidi as well as the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tombia.

A statement by the commissioner of information, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson quoted the deputy governor as saying that "On the issue of salary to disengaged staff, it did not only affect the NDU, but all the tertiary institutions, where the reform policy rationalized the staffing policy according to best practices.

"In the civil service, if redundancy is declared, the rule requests government to pay the worker one month salary in lieu of notice. But, in the tertiary institutions, we saw that their conditions are bit different from the public service regulations. In their case, you must pay the worker, 3 month salary in lieu of notice."

The statement also announced that the state was left with a balance of N7.3 billion at the end of May, 2018.

John-Jonah also noted that other components of the outflows include, bank loans and contractual agreements, N1.7 billion, salary for civil servants, N2.8 billion, political appointees, N315 million and monthly grants to tertiary institutions, N6.30 million.

He said, the total FAAC deductions gulped, N1.6 billion, thereby leaving the state government with a net inflow of N12.7 billion, in addition to an internally generated revenue for the month of April, N590 million.

Earlier in his remarks, Iworiso-Markson assured that the government would remain committed to its transparency and accountability policy for succeeding administrations to emulate.

"Bayelsa today is very well known for what we have been doing for the past 6 years, rendering accounts of what comes in and what goes out on a monthly basis. And we are the only state in the country which has earned us awards and accolades from all over.

The fate of some citizens of Rivers and Akwa Ibom, including that of a woman in Bayelsa State is now in the hands of the governors of those states-Nyesom Wike, Udom Emmanuel and Seriake Dickson, respectively.

In Rivers State, thousands of unpaid pensioners whose benefits have been denied them for years, are at the mercies of death. They want the governor to have mercy on them, otherwise they may die while waiting for their unpaid entitlements.

In Akwa Ibom State, it is about refugees from Ukanafun who had to flee their homes as a result of the activities of militants. Some of them who spoke either in an interview or through a letter to the governor pleaded with the governor to save them from untimely death.

And in Bayelsa State, a housewife, Victoria Gagariga who was sentenced to death by handing, by a Yenagoa High Court is yet to appeal against the judgement. If she will be executed soon depends on the decision of the governor who is being awaited to endorse her execution.

Rivers Pensioners to Wike: Pay us before we die

About 5,875 pensioners who dutifully served the Rivers State government and its agencies for 35 years are currently going through untold economic hardship.

This is because their genuine entitlements have not been paid to them and there are no clear signals that Wike has any immediate plans to do so.

As at the time of filing this report, it was not exactly certain why the government continues to ignore the prolonged cry of its numerous pensioners .

But there were strong indications that some top government officials may have contributed to the delay in the payment. Investigations conducted by TNN in Port Harcourt revealed that in spite of the receipt of bail-out funds by the Rivers State government from its federal counterpart, the government was still owing retirees for about 20 months.

Consequently, the pensioners are unable to satisfactorily provide for their families, while some of their biological children are dropping out of schools on weekly basis.

A retiree who simply identified himself as T.W. Akiode said: "Some of our colleagues have died while waiting for their payments. As it is, there appears to be no glimmer of hope that our situation would get any better under this administration.

"So many of us are sick, infirm and have stayed without payments for up to 20 months. We hardly afford one reasonable meal per day for our family members.

"Our children are out from schools, because of no money for their schooling”.

He, however, passionately appealed to Governor Nyesom Wike to see to their terrible and pitiable state.

Another retiree who is now bedridden, Anthony Levi Igodo, lamented the untold hardship experienced by the pensioners, just as he claimed that the Rivers State government was the only government that had refused to pay attention to the increase in pension rates for so many years now.

"I want to categorically state here that the Rivers State government is yet to pay off all the pensions of the state.

"Some of us trained most of the political leaders, so it is injustice and inhuman for the senior citizens not to be paid their pension and gratuity entitlements and be respected", he emphasized.

Commenting on the issue, state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners , NUP, Edward Festus-Abido, told TNN that for over 15 years since the review of pensions, salaries, incomes and wages, they had not been paid.

He said : "The money owed pensioners by the Rivers State government since 1999 to date is up to N60 billion, including the increase in the pension rates approved by the national salaries, incomes and wages commission ".

Festus-Abido complained that every effort to draw the attention of the governor to the plight of the retired civil servants had proved abortive.

When contacted, the head of civil service, Rufus Godwins stated that the present administration in the state had prioritized the payment of salaries to civil servants and pensioners.

According to him, in fulfilment of one of his campaign promises to the people of Rivers State, Wike ensured the regular payment of salaries to workers and pension benefits to pensioners.

"There is no doubt that the regular payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities has assisted immensely to stabilize the state's economy,” he claimed.

Husband Killer fails to appeal judgement, her fate still in Dickson's hand

Bayelsa born 30-year old woman, Victoria, who was sentenced to death by hanging in February, 2018 for killing her husband, Henry Gagariga is yet to appeal against the court judgement. Also, the governor is yet to endorse for her to be killed.

Victoria killed her husband on February 4, 2015 by stabbing him on the neck after a brawl at their residence along Ebisam Road, Akenfa in Yenagoa.

A tortuous legal battle to save her lingered for three years before the soul of the late Henry Gagariga got justice. At a State High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the presiding judge, Justice Enai Aganaba in passing the judgment, said her death sentence became inevitable as the murder charge against the accused was proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Until her condemnation to death by hanging, Victoria who hails from Brass Local Government, was a staff of the state arts and culture, where his late father also worked.

TNN authoritatively gathered that since the judgement was passed over four months ago, no appeal has been made to set aside the verdict of the lower court, neither has the judgement been executed.

Our correspondent reliably gathered that the best the supposed appellant counsel to the condemned person could do was to submit an appeal notice to the appeal registry in Yenagoa. He left it at that stage.

One court official told TNN that "the accused/appellant counsel brought a notice of appeal to the appeal registry with which we went to the court where the judgement was delivered and got the case file and the exhibit. As I speak with you, the case file and the exhibit are now with the appeal registry.

"The appellant counsel only came to know what it takes to transmit the records to the appeal court in Port Harcourt and we gave him the cost. He has not returned so we have not transmitted the records to the appeal court.

As it stands, the appeal is still pending because the records have not been transmitted to the appeal court and that means the case has not been appealed".

Meanwhile, tongues have been wagging as to why the verdict of the court has not been executed several months after since no appeal was made.

Family members of the deceased as well as some public individuals who spoke to TNN on the matter have likened the situation to a judicial system where the law has refused to take its course.

They argued that if those in the habit of taking the lives of others were treated with kid gloves, such heinous crimes against humanity would persist unabated in the society.

A legal practitioner in Yenagoa, Great Temedie gave a legal insight to the situation, stating that the governor must assent his signature before a death sentence could be executed.

Temedie, however said a state governor or chief judge had the prerogative to pardon such offenders from undergoing capital punishment. He explained further that one of the reasons why delays abound in such cases was because capital punishment had become archaic in the eyes of the international community.

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kemasuode Wodu who was supposed to speak on the matter could not be tracked down for an interview in the last three weeks.

Cross River State governor, Prof Ben Ayade has taken a swipe on Bishop Josef Bassey, General Overseer of God's Heritage Centre, popularly called Gloryland, in Calabar, who recently attacked his style of governance in the state.

According to Bassey, Ayade had taken the state 30 years backwards. For this, the preacher said Ayade did not deserve the privilege of a re-election. In fact, he said the governor should not present himself for a re-election in 2019.

But the governor who reacted through his chief press secretary, Mr. Christian Ita, countered the bishop saying the man was “suffering from optical illusion or alien to the truth. Let him go and run his church.

“Cross River receives the least allocation from the federal government and yet, we have meaningful projects on ground.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is coming to Calabar on June 26 to commission the largest rice city factory in Africa.

“The garment factory that was built by Ayade is functioning with over 3,000 workers, mainly widows.

“The power plant in Calabar is almost being completed and the toothpick factory in Yakurr local government is almost completed too.

“The East-West road in Boki local government has been completed among other numerous projects of the governor.'' he noted.

Bassey had said while addressing journalists in that state that “whatever happens in Cross River State is crucial to us. We are stakeholders in the Cross River State project. Every society like humans has a destiny. We are interested in the fulfilment of the prophetic destiny of the state. We are worried that things have gone wrong and strangely people are not talking ahead of 2019.

“If everybody is being cowed, the church of Jesus should not be cowed. We should be able to speak truth to power. Cross River needs to be rescued as a matter of urgency. People are crying; they are agonizing. Pressure is now on the church. When a state fails, the church becomes the shock-absorber. That is what is happening now.”

Members of the APC in Cross River State who enjoyed the support of the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani were roundly disgraced at Abuja during the party's convention.

They had gone to Abuja with some air of importance and excitement, hoping to gain access into the convention ground, with the influence of their godfather, in the hope that they could force the hands of the convention planners, which had earlier stated that they would not vote because of the pending court case against the outcome of the state congress.

Recall that the processes leading to and during the state congress were hijacked by forces believed to be promoted by Usani, against the wishes of majority of the party stakeholders.

The development led to a court order barring those supposedly elected as officials of the party under the Usani faction from parading themselves as executive committee members of the party in the state.

At the convention, Usani was said to have seriously opposed the candidacy of Hilliard Ettah as national vice chairman, south-south. But despite the opposition, Ettah emerged victorious. He is believed to be very close to Adam Oshimhole, who was elected national chairman.

Mr Adie Atsu Liberty who did not also enjoy the support of Usani was elected zonal organizing secretary respectively, against the wish of Usani and his men.

Usani's man for the office failed with distinction. Their humiliation was very visible. So, they resorted to attacking those who were not in their camp. One of those that suffered severe beatings was Alex Irek.

They were not accredited, neither were they allowed access into the Eagles Square. It was gathered that some of them got other people's tags and used same to take pictures and posted same on the social media, to create the impression that they were also part of the show.

With the emergence of Oshimhole and Ettah, and with the stronghold of the major stakeholders on the party, the belief is that Usani may have lost out completely.

Ordinarily, Calabar, capital of Cross River state, ought not to be difficult to police effectively because of its size. But that perception is changing with the sudden rise in crime rate in the city.

Security agencies have been grappling with cult-related violence until recently when armed robbery, kidnappings and sundry crimes became rampant. Residents in all parts of the city now live in fear as criminals are seemingly having a field day.

The crimes are not being committed in Calabar South alone, known for insecurity, but in Calabar Municipality as well. As this report was being put together, a young man was shot dead by people suspected to be cultists in the evening of Thursday last week.

Sources told TNN that he was shot on a street close to Kanu Agabi's chambers, off Marian Road in Calabar Municipality, when he came out of a house on the street and the people who pulled the trigger sped off in a car.

The cold-blooded murder of a 75-year-old businessman, Mr. Aloysius Adigwe, by an armed robbery gang that invaded his residence at Atabong by Eyo-Ita in Calabar South, shook the neighbourhood and added another dimension to the escalating crime wave in Calabar.

Adigwe may have been alive if not that he chose to confront a member of the gang in the early hours of Tuesday, June 12.

“When he cut one of the armed robbers with a machete, the robber shouted and other gang members came in and when they saw the machete cut, immediately they opened fire on him. They shot him in the chest and he died on the spot.

“He would have lay down quietly and allowed them to take whatever they wanted, than confronting the people,” an eyewitness narrated.

Within the same period, three businessmen were kidnapped by gunmen in Calabar barely three days after two pupils were abducted from a public school in Ikot Effanga Mkpa in Calabar Municipality LGA.

One of the kidnap victims is Justine, a 47-year-old native of Ukanafun in Akwa Ibom state. He was seized by gunmen at Yellow Duke by Palm Street in Calabar South.

It was on the same day that a 41-year-old building contractor whose name was given as Nwadike, from Imo state, was also kidnapped around 9:00pm at Ikot Ansa. A family member called Dubem, revealed that the kidnappers demanded N20 million ransom before they would release him.

“But I pleaded with them that we don't have such money at this time,” he said.

The third victim who is a mechanic known as Lumba from Ohafia in Abia state, was taken away from his workshop at Cemetery area in Goldie Street in Calabar Municipality.

Ogbonna Ude who witnessed the incident, narrated that the kidnappers arrived the mechanic workshop at about 5:00pm and scaled the fence into the premises.

“On sighting the gang, one of Lumba's boys took to his heels and while his boss attempted to escape the kidnappers swooped on him and whisked him into a car and sped off.

“The kidnappers shot sporadically in the air to scare residents away while their victim cried for help but help did not come on time as they succeeded in abducting the man,” he said.

The disappearance of two primary school pupils, Elisha Godwin Ukam and Isaiah Ugi Ugbong, aged five from Government Primary School, Ikot Effanga Mkpa in Calabar Municipal council became a hard nut for the police to crack during the period under review. They were said to have been abducted by unidentified persons after school hours on 17th May, 2018. Luckily the children were rescued last week after about a month in captivity.

The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Irene Ugbo confirmed to TNN that the children regained their freedom last week.

In separate incidents, armed robbers recently attacked NNPC filling station and Dazell-B filling station along the Murtala Mohammed Highway, Calabar.

According to reliable sources, the robbers struck first at NNPC filling station and dispossessed victims of their valuables and cash.

Three days later, on Saturday, 2nd June, they invaded Dazell-B filling station at about 7:30pm where they shot a policeman attached to Federal Housing Police Station who was at the filling station to buy fuel.

They also raided the super market at the filling station and carted away jewellery and other valuables. Other customers at the filling station were also robbed.

Sources also told TNN that the robbers tried to snatch some cars but failed and later escaped across the highway. They are suspected to be cultists living in the neighbourhood.

Dazell-B filling station had been robbed several times, with the super market usually the target. Each time they strike, sometimes late in the night, they ransack the supermarket and cart away valuables.

Cult-related violence is an ever-present crime in Calabar. And true to the assertion of Hafiz Inuwa, Cross River State Commissioner of Police, it will take quite some time before cultism will be eradicated in Calabar and other parts of the state.

He stated this while parading some robbery suspects as well as suspected cultists recently. He based his assertion on his belief that cultism is deep rooted not only in Cross River state but in other parts of the country and it will not be eradicated over-night.

This notion was reinforced by the renewed deadly cult clashes between members of Vikings and Black Axe recently. The cult clashes that lasted three days, beginning on Sunday, 3 June, claimed nine lives in Calabar. The clashes were occasioned by a reprisal attack over an earlier attack on a member of one of the cult groups in March this year.

The attacks were exacerbated by the killing of a cult member known as Agbani that Sunday at the Ediba-Qua area close to Marian market. He was said to have been butchered by his assailants. Reprisal attacks on Monday also led to the death of two other members of the group.

By mid-morning on that Monday, TNN correspondent saw heavily armed policemen combing bushes around Ediba-Qua for fleeing cult members and residents had to withdraw into their homes momentarily to avoid being arrested or hit by stray bullets.

According to eyewitnesses, a tiler known as Emma was one of those killed along Ediba Road by Okon Inok Street.

The state Police Command Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, confirmed the cult clashes but said only one person was killed.

The perennial cult clashes is a thing of very deep concern for the state Commissioner of police, Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa and he said he is determined to proffer a peaceful solution to the menace by having a discreet dialogue with leaders of the various cult groups.

He said the police were working with the special adviser to the governor on inter party affairs, Austin Ibok, to solve the problem.

“We sit every month and discuss how cultism would be wiped out and bring about peace in the state. Because of this effort, various cult groups interfaced with one another but you know in every group, there is Judas, you can't get the good ones all the time.

“Many of them are students, many of them are unemployed, and many of them don't have value for life. That is why they are doing cultism with impunity.

“We cannot allow that. So we are just trying to deal with the situation. But if they decide to be violent, we will confront them. That notwithstanding, we want to ensure that there is peace in the state. Crime does not pay and cultism is not the way forward,” Inuwa said.

Ugbo also played down the rising crime wave. She told TNN over the phone on Thursday that “we are doing our best. No society is crime free. We have deployed more men to the streets and we have arrested many suspected kidnappers, armed robbers, rapists and other suspects. They will soon be paraded and later charged to court.”

Lower currency denominations are meant to facilitate ease of doing business in the market place and other places where such currency notes are very vital as medium of exchange. That is why the Central Bank of Nigeria prints currency denominations as low as N5, N10 and N20. However, inflation has highly eroded the value of these lower currency notes to the point that some of them, like the N5 and N10 notes are becoming useless.

Consumers and retailers and those who offer all forms of services on the streets now rely more on higher denominations such as N50, N100 and N200. Among these three, the most difficult to come by in Calabar, the Cross River state capital, is the N100 note. Even when the N100 note is available, it is so tattered that it is usually rejected by parties during transactions.

Those at the receiving end of this scarcity are cab drivers and retailers. Cab drivers in the city charge N50 for the shortest trip within the metropolis and between N100 and N150 for longer distance. For this reason they usually need N100 note to give as balance to commuters who offer either N200 or N500 note to them. But the scarcity of the N100 note is causing serious friction between cab drivers and commuters.

The first question cab drivers ask whenever someone wants to enter their cabs is: “please do you have your change?” They will zoom off without a word if you dangle N500 or N1000 note in their face, especially in the morning when business has just started. You may be lucky in the afternoon or late in the evening to board a cab with N500 or N1000 note and have balance from the driver without any complaint.

Sometimes, cab drivers have to park by the roadside to look for change from their colleagues or traders to give to commuters when they alight at their destinations.

A cab driver, Celestine Ekwu told TNN that “the issue of N100 note is a big one for us. Every day we find it difficult to get the note for those who enter our taxis. Tell government to help us solve the problem by printing more notes.”

A newspaper vendor, Chukwuemeka Okah from Enugu State, said “I also face a similar problem. Taxi drivers complain about the tattered N100 notes and its scarcity any time you enter their vehicles. The federal government has to print new notes to solve the problem. As a newspaper vendor, I am also suffering from it because there is no new N100 note. Most of my customers reject the bad note I give them. And when they do that, I am the loser as I will not sell the newspapers.”

Jeremiah Ezekiel, another newspaper vendor said: “The N100 notes in circulation now are torn. They are not good enough. They should print more notes and put them into circulation to ease the problem we are facing. We lose customers when there is no balance to give them.”

Ogbonna Christian, a youth who sells hats, wallet and other items near Mobil Filling Station close to WAPI Junction said: “The N100 notes in circulation are not good. The solution should come from the government. The Central Bank should print new notes. They could rebrand the currencies. They could change the colour of the currency notes. Why not bring in new ones?”

But what could be responsible for this acute shortage of N100 notes? TNN findings at Zenith Bank opposite WAPI junction revealed that the Central Bank is responsible for the scarcity.

An official of the bank who pleaded for anonymity, said: “It is the Central Bank that mints the nation's currency notes. Commercial banks make do with what is available.”

He declined to speak further about whether commercial banks don't inform the Central Bank when there is scarcity of particular currency notes as is the case with the N100 notes in Calabar.

Our correspondent in Bayelsa State, JOHN ODHE, takes a look at revelations emanating from the on-going local governments tour by the state commissioner for information, over the civil service reforms embarked upon by the state government.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Bayelsa State, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson is currently on a sensitization tour of the eight local government areas of the state over the on-going civil service reforms. The tour, according to the commissioner, is to set the records straight, following the criticisms that have greeted the exercise. The government of the small but oil-rich Bayelsa state is waging war against the rot it says it met in the state civil service.

Some of the decadence the government claims to have inherited include multiple employment, falsification of age and certificates, ghost workers, indiscriminate promotions and other forms of payroll fraud. The situation, government says, has resulted in an over bloated wage bill which has become too heavy for the state to cope with. Consequently, the state government, amidst sharp opposition from different quarters, embarked on series of reforms aimed at reducing the workforce and the wage bill.

The reforms came in the forms of bio-metric capture of all the civil servants in the state as well as the introduction of the clock-in-clock-out system to ascertain the true workers. From all indications, it seems the reforms are beginning to yield fruitful results. It appears that the continuous civil servants verification exercises have been able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

As the commissioner goes from one local government area to another, informing the locals about the outcomes of the reforms so far, the revelations will blow your mind. Iworiso-Markson has visited three LGAs so far and the stories of many public servants who had milked the state dry through the payroll fraud are uniformed. The commissioner has so far visited Yenagoa, Kolokuma/Opokuma, and Sagbama local government areas, holding town hall meetings with stakeholders of the various councils.

While in Sagbama, where the state governor comes from, Iworiso-Markson revealed that 27,000 ghost and illegal workers had so far been discovered on the payrolls of the state and the local government areas through the public sector reforms. He further explained that the development had brought the state's workforce from 56,000 to 27,000 workers.

Many stakeholders from Sagbama attended the meeting and all, in agreement, endorsed the ongoing reforms in the state, acknowledging that the gains of the exercise were enormous and should therefore continue.

The commissioner said: "Look at what has happened through the reforms. From 56,000 workers, with the reforms we are now 27,000 workers in the entire state. It means that the difference of about 29,000 workers are fake people. Since 1996 that the state was created, it is only now that we are realizing that our state is being short-changed. It means that billions of naira has entered into the pockets of some people. They are the people fighting against these reforms.

"The people against these reforms are those who are taking advantage of our collective wealth and appropriating it into their own personal pockets and putting all of us including the state in this terrible mess. When you hear them criticize the reforms, take note of them, it is very possible they are those short-changing the state".

He also lamented that some persons purchased their employment by paying between N250,000 and N500,000. He said that the boldness and passion of the governor, Seriake Dickson, had liberated Bayelsa, adding that God raised Dickson for the purpose of sanitizing the state.

"Your son has liberated us. God deliberately raised Governor Dickson for this purpose, to clean up this system. Anybody that is embarking on reforms cannot be popular. But Governor Dickson is not the kind of man that is looking for popularity. If you look for popularity you will not do the right thing. If you look for popularity, this mess will continue. My happiness is that all of us in attendance today are in agreement that this reform must continue", he said.

Iworiso-Markson further decried a situation where a syndicate perfected fraudulent means of collecting salaries of 35 persons by raising employment letters of real persons without their knowledge. Explaining further, he said "until these reforms, you had people working in our civil service and the local governments. One man would have almost like 35 people and he is drawing their salaries. Those people are real.

"They have letters of employments but they don't know because this one man included the names of his brothers, sisters, nephews and others. There were letters but they didn't know they were employed in the local government and this one man is drawing their salary. When we started the reforms, when this particular man noticed they were coming to verify and they would be asking questions, he called all those people whose names were on the payroll and told them that their local government had just given them employment.

"He told them to come and do verifications. Those people were surprised when they looked at their letter and discovered that their letters were backdated to five years ago. It means that the man has been collecting their salaries for the past five years. That was how bad it was and the reforms came to stop it."

The caretaker committee chairman, Sagbama Local Government, Michael Magbisa, stated that his council was a direct beneficiary of the reforms and that he had saved N13m monthly from council workers' salaries.

He said about 42 dead persons were removed from the council's teaching sector, stressing that N28m was being saved monthly from the teachers' salaries. He said the health workers' salaries also reduced from N57m to N56m following some adjustments and rectifications of abnormalities in the health sector. Secretary General of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Alfred Kemepado lauded Dickson for implementing the reforms.

He said the process came to address the problems in Bayelsa, insisting that the reforms would create opportunities for the youth. Kemepado said the governor was only correcting the wrong foundation laid by his predecessors.

During a town hall meeting with stakeholders of Yenagoa Local Government, the commissioner hinted that a certain civil servant in one of the LGAs was now on the run, having been discovered for collecting salaries of 300 persons, running into millions of naira. He said the state governor had ordered for his arrest with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, Dickson is leaving nothing to chance in ensuring that the civil service reforms do not meet any brick wall. To this end, the restoration government has sent a Civil Service Records and Documentation Centre Bill to the state House of Assembly. The executive bill was sponsored by the majority leader of the House, Dr. Peter Akpe, representing Sagbama Constituency 1. The bill which has already passed through second reading, sought to keep the records of all civil servants in the state for annual update. The centre, if established, will harness all service commissions in the state and serve as database of all genuine civil servants working in the state.

Long before his inauguration as governor on May 29, 2015, Professor Benedict Ayade, had already developed an impressive developmental blueprint on how Cross River State under his stewardship would evolve.

As a state that had for decades worn the badge of a civil service like a second skin, Governor Ayade was determined to bring about a quick and urgent change in the nomenclature.

One of the several changes he was desperate to alter was governance dynamics with the introduction of the Japanese model. Simply put, he was poise to run the government strictly as a business.

When in his inauguration speech, he told his audience that he was inheriting "a rich state", not many people knew exactly what he meant. For Ayade, Cross River may have been unjustly stripped of her opinion wells, and with no direct control over its abundant solid mineral resources, what was, however, aplenty was the human and intellectual resource. He was ready to fully tap into this asset. He was later to nickname it as "intellectual money".

It is on record that as of the time the governor assumed office 2015, the state reached its borrowing threshold, with huge debt overhang in millions of dollars and billions of naira respectively owed to local and foreign creditors.

Applying Ayade's principles intellectual money in getting the state out of the woods, therefore meant the utilization of of Other People's Money (OPM) model to drive development and industrialization.

Instructively, three years down the line, with nowhere to obtain facilities, coupled with the measly and often times, zero allocations from the federation account, Governor Ben Ayade has ceaselessly continued to astound everyone, including cynics and critics alike with amazing feats, breathtaking breakthroughs in industrialization as well as infrastructural offerings.

He has no doubt been blazing the trail with transformational initiatives to recalibrate the economy of the state in particular and the nation in general.

As a visionary, he had earlier enunciated two lofty projects, the 274 kilometer superhighway stretching from the creeks of Bakassi to the hills of Obanliku and the Bakassi Deep Seaport, that on completion, will surely signpost the state among the developed economies of the world.

Christened the Signature Projects, they are no doubt revolutionary. While preliminary work is ongoing at the deep seaport, the debushing work on the superhighway had since been done, even as the state still awaits the final nod from the federal government for the full commencement of the work proper.

There is no doubt that the administration of Governor Ayade has been punching above its weight.

With regular and prompt payment of salaries without fail, the governor equally has his hands on several Industrialization projects with cost implications running into billions of naira.

Projects such as the cocoa processing factory in Ikom, with 30,000 metric tons capacity,o the rice seedling and seedling plant in Calabar and the automated rice mill in Ogoja, the garment factory in Calabar and Calabar Pharmaceutical Company, have incredible potential to turn the economy around.

Others industries also being set up across the 18 Local Government Areas include the Piles, Pylons and Poles factory in Akamkpa Local Government Area, Toothpick Factory in Yakur Local Government Area, the Poultry and Feedmill Industry in Obubra Local Government Area and among others.

Besides his revolutionary strides in the cocoa value chain, Ayade also has his in hands in the plough to create value addition in rice production. This is in keeping to President Mohammadu Buhari's zero oil roadmap he espoused very early in the life of his administration, with emphasis on agriculture.

The Governor's revolutionary investment in the development of rice value chain in the state with the establishment of rice farm, rice seed and seedling plant and rice mill will definitely gladden the heart of the President as the initiative is aimed at ensuring food security and sufficiency in Nigeria.

Designed to mass produce seeds, nurture seedlings with disease resistance and high yielding vitamimised rice, the seedling plant is truly revolutionary in rice production.

As the state welcomes the President to town today, for the historic commissioning of the first rice seedling factory in Africa, it is doing so with the satisfaction and realization that this is a governor that has painstakingly not only keyed into his rice revolution policy but also gone a notch higher to translate the President's vision into reality.

And it is expected that after the pomp and glitterati of the commissioning today, the federal government and indeed, the president will offer, by way of acknowledging the governor, incentives to ensure that the plant does not suffer the casualty of lack of patronage. This is the only way to point the way forward for others to emulate the Ayade's I can do it spirit.